


All Set in Bone

by AbsVoD7



Category: Underfell - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Human vs Sans, Pacifist Instance, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 21:24:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8638642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsVoD7/pseuds/AbsVoD7
Summary: The human happily reunited with Flowey has almost reached the final hurdle of their journey. But Sans has appeared before them yet again with more insidious intent than last time. Nonetheless the human still believes that even a being as cruel as him is still capable of being a friend. If their journey is ever to reach its conclusion then they'll have to prove it now or never.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to my first work To Fell With Metal. The works I post after this will mostly be prequels cause I'm sure it feels like I've left out a lot.  
> This work like the previous one has been modified to better fit in with the story and is officially the eighth part.

     “Uh Sans?” The human said as the skeleton slowly levitated toward them. “What are you doing?” The human’s question was only met with a laugh.

     “I don’t know about you kid, but I’m about to have a great time,” he said while holding out his palm.

     As the hand started to glow red with soul power the human felt a sudden pull on their soul. Instinctively they placed Flowey’s boot on the ground before they were hoisted into the air immediately afterwards.

     “Sans, what’s the point of all this when we could be conversing with Asgore right now?” Sans ignored their question and flung them back first into the ceiling before dropping them on the ground. They let out a groan of pain as they pushed their self off of the ground and looked up at Sans.

     “Jeez kid, is it really that hard to understand that someone is trying to kill you?” He said while walking towards the human. “You’re still trying to defy the idea of kill or be killed I bet. You certainly are stubborn, I was hoping all the death that had occurred would be enough to convince you otherwise,” he finished.

     The human now sincerely confused asked him, “Death? What death? I’ve talked with everyone and all the attacks were met with peaceful and reasonable solutions. No one has died!” At this point Sans’s voice now took on a condescending and mischievous tone.

     “Really now? No one has died huh? Is that true Flowey? You don’t remember anyone dying do you?” Flowey let out a sigh before he started to speak.

     “I don’t know why we’re doing this or why you have to hear it from me, but since meeting the kid outside the ruins, and up to the point that we parted and met back up outside the CORE, they haven’t killed anyone, so as far as I can remember no one has…“ As Flowey went silent mid-sentence the human suddenly picked up from where he had left off.

     “Of course no one has died Sans, Flowey of all people would know… wait a minute,” the human’s expression went from being vexed to shocked. They then looked at Flowey to see that the expression on his face matched their own. Upon noticing this Sans proceeded to laugh very hard.

     “Whew,” Sans said as he recomposed himself. “That’s the expression of someone keeping a secret finding out that their big boned buddy was aware of rewinds the whole time,” Sans stretched his arms before continuing. “Things were simpler back then when it was just you Flowey. You could've killed everyone and took the human souls but it just wasn't in you. That would've been better than being hunted about the ruins over and over, am I right?” Flowey didn't respond as he was still rocked from earlier. “Your future is just about the same kid, because that’s what happens when you refuse to both give up and fight back,” he said as he turned to face the human again.

     Sans was too busy messing with Flowey to notice that the human had channeled their soul power into a ball while his back was turned. It did make him pause for a short moment but otherwise his only response was letting out a short chuckle. The human launched the energy at Sans but upon leaving their hand the ball dissipated almost instantly. The human looked at their hand with a baffled expression at which Sans chimed in by saying,

     “That’s unfortunate, looks like my magic signature is resistant to yours,” at the same time he lifted the human by their soul again. “You and I just aren't a good match huh,” upon finishing his sentence Sans slammed the human into the ground once more. Flowey snapped out of his disbelief upon seeing the kid get hurt again.

     “Hang in there, I got you,” Flowey said while channeling his soul power into the form of revitalization pellets.

     “My guess is that your plan was to disrupt my magic flow long enough to grab the flower and run, right? That's a pretty smart idea, but it wouldn't have done you any good,” Sans said while the pellets flew past him and into the human.  _No effect? I knew I wasn't going to be able to use it against Asgore but I didn't think Mettaton was going to be only one it worked on,_  the human thought.

     “I guess seeing the nature of your soul power was one good thing that came from you fighting Mettaton. Still can’t believe you were able to beat him though. At first I was honestly considering destroying the tv just to tick off my bro, but it was worth the wait when you found out that fighting Mettaton allowed you to channel the energies properly,” Sans said as the human was working their way back onto two legs. “I’m actually bothered by the fact that Alphys hasn't left the lab in ages and is somehow still more useful than over half the underground,” The human gave Sans their nastiest look yet as they stood upright again.

     “Hey! Don’t talk about Mettaton as if he was Asgore and Alphys's toy. He had a soul and was as much a monster as anyone else down here,” Sans closed his eye sockets and shrugged at the human’s statement.

     “You’re right kid, if Mettaton had no soul then your power wouldn't have worked. In that scenario I wouldn't have seen your potential and we’d be cleaning you off the stage just to lose all progress to a rewind,” upon reopening his eye sockets he noticed the human was still rather upset with him. “Calm down, I’m done trash talking Mettaton. Now that I think about it, you two gave me an idea,” he said while channeling his soul power into the form of a glowing red bone with one sharp end.

     “I call this a Baneful Bone,” Sans couldn't help but burst out laughing all of a sudden. “Don’t worry about me; it just got me really good when you had named that attack while fighting Mettaton. If the king was still a big, fuzzy, pushover then you two would probably be the best of friends,” he finished. The human ignored him before walking towards Flowey.

     “We’re done here,” they said while passing up Sans but they came to a stop as he shot his Baneful Bone right through them. After examining their self for a bit it appeared that no damage was done to their soul or body.

     “That makes sense, the Baneful Bone is an attack created using karmic magic which increases its potency in response to the enemy’s level of violence.” Sans said with a little chuckle here and there. “As we just saw, it did nothing to you, but I’m certain that my favorite flower has spent more than enough time fighting for his rights,” he explained. Suddenly another Baneful Bone appeared above Flowey’s head and started to descend rather slowly. The human gasped before taking off in Flowey’s direction at which point Sans shook his head and said, “Why are you so quick to worry about others when you can’t even defend yourself?” The human ignored Sans and kept running, but suddenly they felt Sans’s presence all around them as well as another magic signature they've never encountered before.

     “Above you!” Flowey shouted. The human looked up to see that Sans had made several bones much sharper and sleeker than before loom above their head.

     “I’m going to call these, Brakken Needles,” Sans said while balling his hand into a fist. At that moment the needles rained down upon the human who was on the move again. While the human was able to refrain from being impaled, each needle hit the ground with enough force to damage the floor around them, making it harder for the human to keep a steady sprint. The human was very close to Flowey now but as they tried to reach for him Sans sent another Brakken Needle their way from the left wall. Instinctively the human took a small hop forward and started sliding across the ground, effectively dodging the needle and picking up Flowey at the same time.

     “We’re getting out of here,” the human said to Flowey as they immediately went from sliding back into a sprint. Sans teleported ahead of them but they didn’t bother to acknowledge him.

     “There’s no point in all this running,” Sans said as the human ran past him. He then teleported in front of them once more before saying, “You can end it all; you just have to follow my lead for this  one time,” they continued to ignore him and kept moving anyway. Sans teleported ahead again with his eye sockets closed this time. “You’re a big fan of doing things the hard way I see,” he said while focusing his soul energy. As the human ran past him they noticed a huge spike of energy from the unknown magic signature. Upon looking over their shoulder Sans was gone and as they looked ahead again a bizarre shaped animal skull with glowing red eyes was floating up ahead with immense power stored in its jaws.

     “What is that thing?” The human said while debating whether to keep running or not.

     “I've never seen anything like this," Flowey responded but I’m assuming the energy flow cycles in the jaw before erupting as a beam of magic energy,” The human’s eyes got really wide as Flowey finished explaining.

     “We’re about to get fried!” The human said with panic in their voice.

     “Yeah, what’s the plan?” Flowey responded.

     “Grab onto me,” the human said while calming down and picking up speed. Flowey pulled himself out of the dirt and coiled his roots and lower body around the human’s arm. As the blaster completed its charge they held the top of the boot shut and took a deep breath. A moment afterwards the skull opened its jaws as wide as possible and projected a highly dense magical force at them. With almost perfect timing the human turned their sprint into a roll allowing them to get under the beam with as little damage as possible. The blaster then proceeded to fade from the physical plane of existence.

     “Nice move, but the roll was slightly mistimed causing some of your back to get singed,” Flowey said with a concerned look. The human now running purely on adrenaline responded by saying,

     “We’ll fix it later,” the human said before reopening the boot for Flowey. “Look there’s the door, a little more and we'll be out of here,” the human’s body began to slack a bit upon seeing the exit.

     “You’re not going to approach Asgore like this!” Flowey said. Out of nowhere a large group of spiked bones erupted from the ground and pierced the human before retreating back under. They then brought one hand to their chest before they stopped moving and fell over dropping Flowey’s boot in the process.

     “You got that right Flowey,” Sans said while descending from the sky. Flowey now crawling on the ground looked up at Sans and then at the human.

     “Back off Sans.” Flowey said as he focused on creating more healing pellets. Sans held out his hand and levitated all the dirt back into the boot before placing it next to Flowey.

     “Stay chill. I made sure I didn't stab anything important. You’re still with us right kid?” The human took a deep breath before talking.

     “What…do you want?” Sans then walked over towards the human’s face.

     “Let me be the first to say that things got out of hand. I wasn't going to kill Flowey, just show an example. The point of the matter is I've seen what you can do. I feel that between my power, and Flowey’s ability to have full knowledge of all rewinds, we have the time and the know how to get you attuned to using karmic magic. That way you’ll be able to kill Asgore and escape the barrier. I know that it’s not in your nature but I just need you to make one exception,” he explained. The human coughed twice before continuing.

     “It’s not going to happen. Aside from me not being fine with killing Asgore, Mettaton made it pretty clear that he’ll simply be replaced should something happen to him,” this made Sans start tapping his golden tooth while thinking about those connected to Asgore.

     “Replaced huh? I don’t see how. Only through a private info network and effectively placed forces all throughout the underground can he oppress everyone down here. You’d have to have seen his strategies yourself as well as have a lot of weight with your name to take his place, because the enforcers won’t take orders from just anyone, especially his royal guard,” suddenly Sans stopped tapping his tooth and snapped his fingers. “That’s right, the royal guard. Undyne's their captain and aside from having a high success record she’s been personally trained by Asgore. Should he leave then she already has the command and connections needed to keep things moving,” Sans then looked at the human on the ground and said, “Thanks for the tip; I’ll be back in a bit so don’t go anywhere,” Sans closed both eye sockets and started to focus but was interrupted by the human yelling at him all of a sudden.

     “Don’t even think about it! No one is going to die today,” Sans let out a sigh and placed both hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

     “I suppose this is the part where you give me a speech about Undyne being good on the inside and all that right? Don’t be a fool, kid. Just help me off the king and hopefully we won't have to worry about dealing with Undyne until later, i'm sure it'll count as a win for both us,” he bargained. The human sat up even though Flowey was not yet done with their injuries.

     “Why are you so fixated on the death of Asgore?” Without the assistance of eyebrows Sans was still able to express his irritation with the human.

     “You've died a ton of times but the underground hasn’t gotten any closer to obtaining the seventh human soul. I figure that if you never truly end up dying then your journey ends with all of us trapped in a loop of being stuck down here anyway; if that’s the case than I’d rather toss the old tyrant here and now if it happens to change everything,” he answered.

     “I’m not doing it Sans. I’ll approach the King and handle things my way,” they said as all of their injuries were almost fixed.

     “Is that it then? You think you’re just going to walk in and find the magic words that’ll bring back the old Asgore. You’ll still be stuck here if you don’t kill him, so stop being stupid and work with me!” Sans ordered them.

     "That's not how i'm going to do things," the human said while shaking their head in disagreement. At this point the glow in Sans’s left eye intensified.

     “I’m not excited by the idea of making no progress and you’re highly adamant about doing things the easy way. Neither of us are backing down so unless someone changes their mind we’ll keep reliving this instance. If we’re only allowed death and determination incarnate, then so be it. It’s not every day that you get to say you’ve killed a person more than once,” Sans then snapped his fingers and a blaster materialized above the human. “Hopefully we’ll come to an agreement next time,” at that point the blaster had fired and the human rolled to their right as quickly as possible to avoid the beam.

     “If you can end the King than what do you need me for?” The human said as they got up from the ground.

     “I made the mistake of giving Asgore an out which he makes very clear whenever he’s being a sore loser. That’s where your peaceful history actually becomes useful.”

 _What does he mean he gave him an out, and how could a peaceful be useful in defeating the King?_ Flowey thought to himself. Flowey looked at the human and back at Sans and at that point something clicked. “You gave the King access to a karmic ability didn’t you,” Flowey said catching Sans's gaze as he launched Brakken Needles at the human.

     “You catch on fast. Originally the king was going to use it to destroy the human should they actually amass a potent enough level of violence. That way the underground would have seven human souls even if they managed to defeat him. I didn’t really care about it until the fact that I realized that the human was now in control of rewinds,” Sans answered.

     “Now that Asgore has that ability and the human never plans to fully die or kill they’ve become your only weapon against him,” Flowey said while looking at the human once again. In response Sans stopped projecting needles and started clapping his hands.

     “Right again, sound logic don’t cha think? Now can I get you two to help?” He asked. The human breathing heavily now looked up while shaking their head no again.

     “Absolutely not!” They shouted. Sans surely seemed like rolling his eyes but instead he gave a shrug in response.

     “No surprise there,” he said before holding his hand out in Flowey’s direction. Upon looking up Flowey noticed a large amount of needles were now looming overhead. “I’m sure that you plan on taking our favorite flower to meet Asgore as well right? How do you think that’s going to turn out?” Sans said while lowering the needles. Instinctively the human dived towards Flowey but right before they could seize him, Sans had levitated the boot into his hand before driving several needles into the human’s back. Sans was about to start speaking again but the human had cut him off by signaling stop with their right hand.

     “Save it Sans,” they said while trying to get up. Flowey tried to heal the kid but Sans threatened to crush him if he did.

     “Suit yourself, kid,” Sans said as he made a large group of spiked bones penetrate the human from the ground again. “That stuff is pretty cool; I think I’ll call it Skeleton Skewer,” he said as the strike brought the human to their knees. They noticed that the strikes Sans made this time landed in some rather fatal places, but before everything went dark they made sure that they were looking  Sans right in the eyes.

     “I… will never…” At that point the human fell silent and the Judgement Hall was no longer a place free of a death.

     “So we're really doing this huh? You know we’re just starting another cycle," Flowey told Sans who nodded agreeably in response.

     “Both of us are being pretty stubborn, I know that they’ll be back so you’ll have to keep things up to date if we hope of accomplishing anything. In the meantime I’m going to take a nap. Fill me in when you two come back.”

     Sans closed his eye sockets and the thought of the human face to face with Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Muffet, Mettaton and many others came to mind. _You really thought it was wise to make friends with them? How stupid could you be? I’m pretty sure murderers don’t put “making friends” on their to-do list. This place isn’t known for forging bonds, I don’t know why that won’t that stick in your head. Nonetheless you’re convinced that there’s good in everyone aren’t you?_ He thought.

     Suddenly the image of Papyrus turned around while yelling. “Sans!” Sans chuckled at the sight of this. _Papyrus? This must be a joke. You’re the last person who should be judging me, hell, you’re just as bad._ “Sans!” Papyrus had yelled once again while grabbing Sans and shaking him by the hoodie. _Look, you’re ticking me off now, I have better things to do than listen to you gripe._ “Wake up Sans!” Sans was puzzled for a short moment. _Wake up? Wait a minute._ Sans woke up and saw that Flowey and the human were right in front of him, and that he ended up next to the same Judgement Hall window as before.

     “Ah, there you are kid. I want to talk with you,” Flowey made himself known as Sans had finished his sentence.

     “We’ve been through all of that before Sans. Your plan of teaching karmic magic, the human going against it, the two of you starting a cycle until one of you can change the others mind,” Sans paused with one hand on his chin. Soon afterwards he teleported away and came back with two corndogs topped with mustard. Understanding that they were dealing with a magic skeleton made it easy for the human to accept the fact that Sans was talking normally without a tongue and a mouthful of food.

     “So we’re at the part where one of us has to prove more adamant than the other huh?” Sans said amidst his chewing.

     “That’s right, and don’t even think about messing with Flowey this time either,” the human told him.

     “Fine, I won’t touch him, because I don’t need to. While having Flowey at your back is useful, it’s still a foolish idea to challenge me because even he has his limits,” Sans said while downing the remainder of the first corndog.

     “No one is going to die today Sans,” the human said while placing Flowey over on the window sill. Meanwhile Sans was now halfway done with the second corndog.

     “So I've heard, In any case I’m just about out of lenience kid, if you don’t give up now then things are about to get pretty dark for you,” he said as the human walked towards the middle of the hall before looking back at him.

     “I’m not afraid of you hurting me Sans. I’m going to keep going either way,” Sans made sure that the corndog sticks weren’t safe from his jaw before teleporting in front of them.

     “I guess it’s time to find out how many times I have to kill you before you give in,” Sans said while intensifying the glow in his left eye. As Sans and the human stared at each other for a moment Flowey had let out a sigh from the window sill.

     “Guess there’s no avoiding it,” Flowey said as the two seemed beyond reasoning. Sans started laughing again before closing his eye sockets.

     “You’ll learn to make better decisions eventually,” he said while focusing soul energy yet again. At this point the human felt him become omnipresent again. Flowey was already focusing on having the first heal ready as Sans continued to talk.

     “It’s definitely a rough day outside you know. Flowers are wilting, birds are dying. On days like this kids like you”- A chill went down the human’s spine as Sans opened his eye sockets again but the actual eyes were gone leaving only voids to stare into. -“should grow up already!” Sans seized the human by their soul and slammed them on the ground followed by a Skeleton Skewer. There was nothing the human could do about the slam but they rolled to the right upon feeling Sans’s presence get even closer from beneath them.

     "Watch your back!" Flowey called out as they were standing up but it was too late however for a line of bone pillars had rammed into the human with enough speed to split them in half.

     “Such a shame; that round was way too short. Oh well, you know where to find me. I doubt that was enough to convince you anyway,” Sans said while falling asleep on his feet yet again. Upon entering the Judgment Hall in the next instance the human saw Flowey on the window sill next to Sans.

     “Flowey, so that’s where you went,” they said as Flowey nodded to them.

     "For the sake of time I asked Flowey to keep me up to date with our previous time mishaps. With that being said, let’s get to the point.” The human steeled their nerves, took a deep breath, and stayed determined as Sans got to the end of his opening statement and told them to grow up. Sans grabbed the human by the soul and slammed them down. The human placed their palms in front of them in an attempt to reduce damage from the slam. They immediately pushed their right hand on the ground hard enough to get a good roll out of the range of his Skeleton Skewer. The human got up and ran down the long side of the hall as bone pillars were advancing from the opposite side.

 _What could be next?_ The human thought while as they continued to escape his bone pillares. Meanwhile a blaster manifested in front of them before discharging a beam straight ahead. The human slid under the blaster while leaning back to avoid taking unnecessary burn. Amidst the slide they noticed two more blasters appearing overhead. In response, they pushed on the ground ahead with their feet making it easier to roll backwards and escape the first beam. They also dodged the second beam by jumping backwards as far as possible and sliding on their back.

     “Nice work,” Flowey said as the human was taking a breather. He then proceeded to heal them before readying himself for the next round.

     “We’ll handle whatever you throw our way Sans,” the human said while getting back on their feet. Sans just laughed at them while cracking his knuckles.

     “Sweet, looks like the warm-up is finally over then,” Sans said while increasing the intensity of the glow in his left eye to the point that a red aural stream could be seen evaporating from it. The human looked at Flowey and noticed that he was worried about their well-being. Before they could reassure him, Sans started talking once more. “You’re human kid,” Sans said with a more sinister tone than before. “That means you have a skeleton inside of you. I can’t wait to meet it,” he continued. The human got their breathing under control but Sans had them slightly unnerved.

     “Sans, why is trying to kill me here any better than having me fight the King? You said that this is all a waste of time either way right?” Sans made pillars of bone appear in front of him and advance towards the human one after the other.

     “You plan to talk to the king, which in short means dying over and over, until he finally considers looking at things from your perspective. However, he’s not going to do that so you’ll just accomplish nothing with your rewinds. We’re wasting time here too, but I figured the king shouldn’t have all the fun, am I right?” The human dodged left and right to get around each pillar until Sans was done making them.

     “Believing death is going to be the answer to everything will only leave you miserable,” the human said to Sans who did nothing but shake his head.

     “Prison is the perfect metaphor for what the underground has become. Everyone is filled with violence and familiar with murder. Anything, or anyone for that matter, to catch their eyes, for practically no reason at all, is susceptible to traumatic experiences. Makes even more sense with the fact that sharing a prison doesn’t stop them from unleashing their wrath upon each other. One time I sought to look from the outside-in just like you did. In the end I started to wonder if they actually preferred to be miserable. Trust me; it will do you so much better to stop caring,” he said before launching more Brakken Needles at them while at the same time sending pillars horizontally at their feet.

     “Everyone is just feeling uneasy, things will calm down once they realize that they have choices.” The human said while hopping over a pillar.

     “You’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met if you plan on sticking with the whole good exists within all bit. That’s just not how the world works,” Sans said while materializing blasters. “You’ve behaved in a manner that reflects what everyone once wanted, yet you can’t accept the fact that they’re not capable of doing that anymore,” the human took a few cuts trying to evade some needles.

     “That’s why I believe that given the time I can help them escape the walls they’ve built around themselves,” they responded but their optimism only made Sans start laughing pretty hard.

     “Didn’t anyone tell you that you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to be helped?” Sans said. Meanwhile needles advancing from the right had pierced the human’s legs bringing them down to their knees. “The underground will never know peace,” Sans said while charging a blaster in front of the human. “Malice will spread across the surface and they won’t have an ounce of regret,” Sans said as the blaster reached maximum charge.

     “If you can’t do what must be done then the only option you have left is to suffer,” as Sans finished his sentence the blaster released the pent up energy causing the human’s flesh and organs to be rapidly vaporized. Sans started to laugh as he gazed upon the charred bones and laughed even harder as he shook the human’s now lifeless hand.

     “Nice to meet you roasted bones, I’m Sans the Skeleton,” Sans proceeded to laugh even more while Flowey watched with a mortified expression on his face. “What a kid. If they wanted to celebrate accomplishing nothing with me they could’ve at least brought some corndogs,” he said before dozing off on his feet again.

     Amidst the emptiness of Hollow World the human opened their eyes and sat up from the invisible ground. Several words were flying around them as they tried regaining their bearings. Such words present consisted of loss, regret, anger, hopelessness, and suffering to name a few. _None of this applies to me,_ the human thought to their self. As if reacting to the thought as a command all the words suddenly scattered across the void.

     “I refuse to give up!” The human said while getting back on their feet. As they searched for their way out one word slowly became visible from beyond the void; determination. It didn’t take long for the three to be at it again. The human was once again face to face with Sans and Flowey was doing his best to fill in the gaps. Sans was talking clearly while munching on mustard topped corndogs yet again.

     “How many times have we done this Flowey?” Sans asked while downing the corndog sticks.

     “We’ve started this instance for the 14th time now,” Flowey answered with minimal enthusiasm.

     “Really? It’s obvious that you’re determined to find another way to resolve all of this. Still, your optimism isn’t enough to convince me that letting you go will be worth it,” Sans said while cleaning the gaps of his teeth with a Brakken Needle. “Let’s get to the point,” Sans said yet again.

     Flowey and the human were slowly getting used to the attacks until they were able to effectively keep up with Sans’s routine, but they happened to keep falling short every time. Each and every mistake was constantly met with death and rude remarks.

     “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Sans said as he pinned the human to a wall with several needles. “Why is it so hard for you to understand that trying to make peace will get you nowhere? He’s not going to stop fighting you so just give up and kill him!” Sans shouted.

     “Never,” the human said before coughing up blood. Sans face palmed then balled his hand into a fist.

     “It’s the natural order of things. When something tries to kill you, you kill it first!” Sans turned his angry expression to Flowey, who only shrugged in response, then back to the human.

     “I think that’s an unfortunate way of thinking brought about by people not considering the option of just talking through their problems with one another. I still believe that you and I could talk through this, Sans,” as the human finished their sentence Sans let out a huge sigh before vaporizing them with a blaster.

     “Why couldn’t you have stayed dead like the others?” With several more loops in the instance the three were at the wall of the Judgement Hall once more. Sans looked at Flowey who was already one step ahead of him.

     “It’s the 32nd,” he told them. Sans couldn’t help but start laughing as that sunk in.

     “You see how stupid this all is, no amount of rewinds will accomplish anything if your opponent doesn’t decide to stop fighting,” the human looked at Flowey who by the looks of things seemed just as uncertain of everything.

     “I’m sure your thinking the same thing at this point right? Don’t worry about it any longer because this time we’re going to end this,” but Flowey simply looked up at them with a confused look on his face. “You still believe in me don’t you?” They asked him.

     "Yeah, you made it this far. I'm sure you'll find a way," Flowey told them before getting his head back in the game.

     “Words can’t describe how stubborn you are, anyways let’s keep it rolling,” Sans said teleporting to the center of the hall. Flowey was still a bit uneasy as Sans and the human met face to face in the middle of the hall yet again. “It’s still a rough day outside, flowers are still wilting, birds are still dying, and on this same day, you still haven't been able to grow the hell up already!” He shouted. The human was familiar enough with Sans’s opening act to be able to evade the attacks while concentrating on other things.

 _I believe I’ve experienced enough to be able to avoid all the unnecessary pain he’s ready to dole out. If I can keep myself as healthy as possible then it’ll be easier for Flowey to take care of the rough parts,_  the human thought to their self.

     “It’s pointless for you to think that everyone can change,” Sans said while sending bone pillars at them.

     “So I’ve been told, but I like to believe that anyone can change if they just tried,” they responded while outmaneuvering the pillars. Upon closing the gap they had reached out to Sans who simply teleported away. Upon turning around they saw Sans a bit of a ways behind them manifesting several blasters.

     “Toriel lost her mental reasoning and was quick to ignite any child who wanted to leave her alone. What made you think that she’d find it in herself to let you walk?” Sans asked while firing the blasters. The human ran ahead while precisely dodging and rolling under each of the beams.

     “I didn’t to be honest, my first run in with her I burned to death just like the others Flowey mentioned. I was lost when I came back, but upon realizing what I had done, I figured I’d see something different if I tried to help her remember why she started doing all that in the first place,” they answered. It was hard for the human to tell but they believed Sans was raising an eyebrow at them. ”Towards the end I was standing there dumbfounded while she kept screaming why and cursing Asgore’s name over and over. After that she placed her face in her hands and started crying. When I went to comfort her she said that she can’t even remember his name anymore, that’s when it all made sense; the drawings, the toys, the books, and the costumes,” at this point the human was directly in front of sans with their hand stretched out.

     “She wasn’t amused by the idea of imprisoning children; she just didn’t want to accept the fact that she was forgetting her own,” they said as they were about to catch Sans. To their dismay however Sans evaded them by teleporting to their back a pushing them with one hand. Upon turning around they saw that he had already put a good amount of space between them.

     “Having sympathized with her condition, she no longer saw a reason to fight you so she let you go instead. Not what I was expecting, but that was one scenario that you happened to get lucky on,” Sans said while seizing and tossing the human by their soul. Flowey made sure to heal them after every other slam because he knew that the human needed him to conserve as much energy as possible.

     “I don’t understand why you bothered to view her in a different light. Having been told what she’s done and how she’s behaved you really shouldn’t have cared about what tragedies she experienced and why they came to be. I guess I should’ve anticipated something crazy like that happening seeing how she gained a self-destructive personality along with her brain damage. I honestly thought that not having all her marbles just made her that much better at killing. What really had me reeling was the fact that you were able to get to my brother of all people. Unlike her he was fully aware of his job and was fine with every moment of it,” meanwhile the human stood up and slowly walked toward him.

     “Papyrus came off as highly intimidating when I first met him. Originally I didn’t think I was going to get through to him, but the fact that I did was the main reason I chose to believe everyone can make a change,” they responded.

     “You can’t be serious," Sans said with a shrug. "What part of ‘I will capture a human so that they may be taken to Asgore where they’ll die and have their soul taken’ struck you as good friend material?” He continued. The human then reached out to Sans with their right hand but he shifted into their left and tripped them with his foot before letting out a short laugh.

     “Didn’t see you there, I’ve really been running my mouth off haven’t I,” upon getting up and turning around the human saw that Sans had gotten far away from them yet again. “He made a name for himself by consistently killing and you still considered talking with him even though you knew that. How many times did you die before getting through to him?” Sans asked with his back turned to the human.

     “Enough,” the human said while dusting their self-off. “You weren’t really looking forward to me killing your brother were you Sans?” They asked him.

     “I wouldn’t have cared all that much,” Sans said while turning around. “You’ve seen the two of us together; don’t tell me you’re dumb enough to call that cohesion,” Flowey continued to watch on as Sans and the human went back and forth. _I knew they were far from perfect but I never thought he would say something like that. What is this guy?_ Flowey thought to himself.

     “Don’t give me that,” Sans said upon noticing the shocked look on the human’s face. “I’m positive that he’d say the exact same thing about me if you were to ask him,” he continued but the human shook their head in disagreement.

     “Sans, even with you and your brother having a fragile bond at best, that’s still not viable reason to want him dead,” they told him.

     “Here we go again, it’s not that big of a deal. I knew he was going to try to fight you. In the case that he came back and told me that he was readying the cell then he completed his mission. In the case that he didn’t come back whatsoever I knew that he played his part in the natural order of things. Either outcome wouldn’t have bothered me,” Sans said while poking his golden tooth again. The human started walking towards him yet again.

     “Sans please, just think about the times when the four of us would hang out without worrying about stuff like souls, lethal puzzles, and the royal guard. You’re not going to tell me that all of that meant nothing, are you?” The human asked. Sans let out a sigh and placed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, he then proceeded to send two sets of vertical and horizontal bone pillars at the human.

     “This is annoying. You’ve made things way more complicated than I would care to deal with. Getting one last human soul should’ve been easy, hell, a human falling into a mountain sounds halfway dead as it is. I didn’t care what your presence down here meant; I was only interested in witnessing how this abysmal world of ours would change,” he responded. Meanwhile the human was hopping and strafing to pass the vertical and horizontal pillars while closing the gap. Unfortunately, they tripped over the last horizontal pillar right in front of Sans.

     “However, it became clear upon seeing Flowey’s expression that every monster’s wait was officially for nothing,” upon finishing his sentence Sans literally walked all over the human before teleporting away. “I’ve dealt with Flowey for quite some time but that day he had an expression of fear that I could only recall seeing once before. That combined with you miraculously solving intricate puzzles deemed impossible at first glance proved that Flowey was no longer in control,” Sans said as the human was picking their self-up again.

     “I planned on ignoring your existence until you started parading around as everyone’s magical therapist. I wasn’t convinced at all that you’d go all the way but you skated by in some tough spots. Now that I think about, Undyne’s rage caused her to chase you to hotland and Mettaton allowed you to access your soul power. In both cases you were very lucky, especially with Mettaton, because you’ve been ignoring the fact that even having been moved by your performance that didn’t stop him from fighting you anyway,” he explained. The human took off running towards Sans as he stopped talking.

     “While that is true that doesn’t change the fact that I did survive and that you’re standing in the way of the final step to ending all of this,” they said but they came to an immediate stop as Sans seized them by their soul and slammed them against the ceiling and then the ground.

     “Witnessing the difference you’ve made caused me to wonder if this journey of yours was actually possible. Every time you made progress I would try my best to pick Asgore’s brain. No matter how hard I searched for an exploit or the smallest sign of opportunity he never gave an opening. The more friends you made the more he wanted to see you get crushed. That’s why I’m certain that talking won’t settle things with him. It seemed like nothing was going to change so I asked myself could I kill Asgore if wanted to and of course the answer was yes,” it was then that the human tried to grab Sans again, but he simply teleported away once more.

     “Inciting change is not sufficient motive to disregard life,” the human said while looking around for him.

     “That’s funny coming from someone who has used rewinds to avoid taking people at face value,” Sans said while conjuring more Brakken Needles. Upon hearing Sans’s voice the human instinctively rolled backward twice to escape the raining needles. ”Monsters have stopped considering the lives of others for a long time,” he continued. The human looked up to see that Sans was no longer looming over their head but was instead standing further off in the middle of the Judgement hall. “That’s just how we do things down here, kid. Take care of yourself first and avoid sticking your neck out at all times,” he finished.

     Sans shot more needles which the human proceeded to duck under while running. However, as they advanced it felt like Sans was closer than he should’ve been. Instinctively the human slid to a halt just as they were about to run into a Skeleton Skewer. The the same attack could be felt going off right beneath them so they rolled to the left before they continued to chase him. Sans waved his hand from the ground up and a large group of horizontal bone pillars quickly moved towards the human with each stack being higher than the last.

     The human stopped and took a deep breath as the pillars got closer. With good timing and reflexes the human got their left foot on top of the first stack and began surmounting the remaining stacks like a set of makeshift stairs. Sans manifested a blaster right behind the last stack in the perfect position to nail them in the face once they get to the top. The human’s eyes were on the pillars to avoid missing a step but they had a good idea of what Sans was planning when they sensed the blaster’s unique magic signature. Just as they were about to reach the top the human placed both feet on the second to last stack and dived over the final one while barely getting under the blaster beam.

     “This is where your luck ends,” Sans said while clapping his hands together once. “Tidal Grave!” As Sans unleashed the attack the human suddenly felt the room get cold and his omnipresent feeling become stronger than ever. _The range on this attack is insane, doesn’t look like I can do anything about this,_  the human thought.

     “Flowey!” the human called amidst their fall.

     “I’m on it,” Flowey said while manifesting a vine from the hall’s ceiling. As they were falling the human caught the vine and was pulled toward the ceiling just as the entire floor became a torrent of sharp bone. After the bones had retreated Flowey lowered the human back onto the ground.

     “Still alive, huh?” Sans said. The human was startled as Sans made his presence known right behind them. Upon turning around they were being lifted by their soul once more. “That was rather unnecessary now that I think about it. It didn’t really do much but make me tired. I’ll give you a more direct ending since a nap is sounding really good right now,” Sans said before flinging the human extremely hard down the long way of the hall. _This isn’t good! At this rate I’ll break upon hitting the wall!_  The human thought. 

     “Don’t worry, I got this!” Flowey shouted out. At the same time the human felt Sans set off a Skeleton Skewer on the far wall. _Not sure how a vine is going to get me out of this but I trust him nonetheless,_ the human thought.  _It’s ok. I just have to get creative. If they can do it then so can I,_ Flowey thought while focusing hard on his magical energy. To the human’s surprise, as they neared getting pinned to the wall, a ginormous sunflower had rapidly grown in their path. The human collided with the head of the flower which virtually negated the impact.

 _Amazing, Sans had tossed me pretty hard yet this thing didn’t give way at all,_  the human thought as the flower lowered them to the ground before dissipating. _If everything is still in proper order then Sans’s next attack will be inescapable. From then on out we’ll be in the dark. Hopefully I’ve eased the stress on Flowey enough because he’ll decide whether or not we beat Sans,_ the human continued to think.

     “That was a neat trick our little flower friend just pulled. Still there’s no way that he’ll be able to outlast me. How do you plan on protecting Flowey from Asgore anyway? The only reason he’s been safe all this time is because I want both of you to be at your strongest when I crush your spirits for good. Don't think you'll get off so easy with the king because he'll definitely be more ruthless for you,” Sans said while popping his knuckles.

     “I’m not aware of how I’ll handle Asgore right now; I’ll figure it out as soon as we get past you,” the human responded.

     “That’s pretty bold, you better not disappoint,” upon finishing his sentence Sans created a very tall wall of bone pillars and sent it toward the human. Flowey at the same time made a large sized sunflower appear before the human.

     “Get on quickly!” Flowey shouted. Compared to the first one it was rather small however this one had a large face that was pointed toward the ceiling. The human hopped on the face of the flower and was quickly launched high into the air where Flowey made another vine for them to hang on to. As the wall had passed underneath Flowey lowered them back to the ground. They had lost sight of Sans in the process but it felt like he was close. At the sound of a snap the human was suddenly trapped in a ring of bone spikes. Upon looking up they noticed Sans manifesting a blaster that was larger than the ones used previously. At the same time Flowey made a large plant grow beneath the human.

     "You've got to curl up right now!" He ordered them. The human listened to him and was surprised to see that the flower was reversing the blooming process. Sans’s blaster had discharged and the human looked around in amazement to see that the petals were holding up without incinerating. Both the blaster and the flower disappeared simultaneously.

     “We’re getting closer and closer to turning the tables Sans. You should stop this cause I won’t give up!” The human told him.

     “You won’t be spared by Asgore either,” Sans responded. “That’s the dilemma of the path you’ve chosen, it all amounts to nothing if he refuses to agree with you,” Sans readied his next attack after finishing his sentence. Flowey was analyzing Sans’s next move but the conversation had him thinking as well. Sans manifested two rows of blasters, one close to the ground and another slightly above the human.

 _Here we go again, I can do this._ _He’ll vaporize any growing plants or hanging vines and it’s costly for me to keep using my Barrier Bud. However, this won’t be a problem since I’m familiar with the radius on the smaller blasters._ Flowey thought to himself. As the blasters were charging Flowey made several vines much thicker than before grow from the wall to the right of the human. They watched with a confused look on their face as they saw the vines pierce and drill into the wall on their left.

     “Get on and lay down!” Flowey had shouted. The human instantly snapped out of the confusion and followed his directions. All the blasters proceeded to fire their magic and the human was safely laid between the two rows upon the sheet of vines suspending them in midair.

     “Nice play, but you won’t get so lucky next time,” Sans said while the blasters disappeared.

     “It wasn’t luck Sans,” Flowey responded. “I’ve seen you use enough of those things to know just how wide the beam gets. What mainly made it possible was the fact that you assumed I’d be useless if I didn’t have access to the ground or the ceiling,” Sans clapped his hands as Flowey finished explaining.

     “Alright, that’s actually very good, I’ll admit you got skills flower. Question is, how are you going to stop me from burning you out now that I’ve seen the scope of your abilities. I still have power to spend you know,” Sans said with a shrug.

     “You’re bluffing,” the human cut in. “Your magic reserves have been getting strained during all this as well. I’m sure of it because the base omnipresence you give off has gotten a lot weaker,” Sans placed a hand over his face and let out a sigh upon getting busted.

     “Sans, I refuse to believe that the times we’ve all shared were nothing to you. Can you honestly tell me after witnessing all we’ve done that they’re not capable of making friends? I still think that we’re friends, and I believe Asgore can be friendly again, so let us through please,” Flowey hoped that Sans would finally acknowledge the human's efforts but he didn’t do anything aside from shake his head no.

     “Kid, what’s wrong with you? You do realize that this world isn’t black and white, right? Do you feel that not being able to kill does something extra for you? You’re set up to fail because you’re trying to save someone when they’ve already decided that they’re beyond saving. Sharing your idea of friendship is wasted on someone who’s not interested; case in point myself, which is why this particular life of yours is ending right now,” upon completing his sentence Sans soul tossed the human into the ceiling. Flowey was getting ready to heal them until he noticed that Sans was manifesting a group of large sized blasters as the human fell.

     “Curl up, quickly!” Flowey shouted. The human followed instructions even having been moderately rocked by the fall. _Crap!_ _He’s too far ahead, I won’t be able to help them in time. Never thought he’d force my hand this early,_ Flowey thought to himself.  Flowey looked at the human balled up on the ground. While the fear and pain were evident it was their trust that was reaching out to him more than anything. _I’ve got you. I can only hope that this doesn’t bite us in the end,_ he continued to think.

     “Crystal Barrier Bud!” Upon activating his ability a large flower grew beneath the human and reversed its blooming process very quickly. As the blasters opened fire the flower petals mimicked a reflective surface causing the unabsorbed energy to be redirected. Sans teleported away as one of his own attacks got sent in his direction. The same almost happened to Flowey but the angle was off so that only the wall and a bit of the window sill to his right took damage. As the flower disappeared the absorbed energies were converted into healing for the human. Meanwhile Sans had reappeared to the left of Flowey without them knowing.

     “You should have quit while you were ahead,” he said as he lifted the human by their soul yet again. At the same time the craziest arrangement of bone pillars and skewer patches were forming throughout the long end of the Judgement Hall. “Break some bones kid,” Sans said before sending the human flying.

     Flowey made a vine connect the short end of the judgement hall as the human neared a set of bone pillars emerging from the ceiling. _What’s he trying to do?_ The human thought to their self. They grabbed the vine anyway which broke on them very quickly but it assisted in redirecting them closer towards the ground as they continued toward the far wall. _It makes sense now, Sans makes the illusion of launching me forever by altering how my soul perceives gravity,_  the human thought while readying their self for Flowey’s next plan. 

     Flowey made a vine appear from the ceiling as the human was approaching a tall skewer patch followed by a smaller stack of pillars on the ceiling. The human pushed on the ground with one hand and reached for the vine with the other. Upon seizing it they then pulled on the vine bringing their self closer to the ceiling. The human made sure they were clear of the skewer patch before pushing on the ceiling with both hands so that they were falling closer to the ground and out of the way of the pillars.

     “Give up!” Sans said while the human was still falling, nonetheless they proceeded to safely maneuver past all of Sans’s traps with Flowey’s assistance. As the human neared the newly implied ground Flowey generated a very large flower cushion like before. They then landed comfortably amidst the flower at which point their gravity had reset to normal. Immediately they felt Sans setting off his Skeleton Skewer as their feet returned to the real ground. Instinctively the human began running forward while Sans rapidly conjured one bone patch after another. A giant winding crack in the ground followed wherever Sans’s magic proceeded to chase them.

     The human slid to a stop as the magic ceased to chase and Sans generated a wall of spiked bones both in front of and behind the human trapping them in a box like zone. Afterwards Sans made a lot of blasters spawn and charge in a circular fashion. _How does he still have this much left?_ The human thought to their self.

     “Stay focused!” Flowey shouted. _What? Oh!_ The human’s surprise prevented them from realizing that Flowey had generated a vine and two spring flowers for them.

     “Neat,” the human said while hopping on the first spring flower. The subsequent launch sent the human out of the way of the first beam and directly to the second spring flower which rested on the right wall. The beams were quick to catch up but the second launch easily got the human out of the way of while putting them in reach of the vine. Sans watched on in annoyance as the human grabbed onto the vine and swung ahead of the coming and going blaster beams. It seemed like the human was losing speed but upon colliding with the spring flower resting on the wall again they were back to leading the blasters with proper distance.

     “This is dumb, there’s no reason to care about someone who wants you dead,” Sans said making it very clear how annoyed he was. “People whose ideals prevent them from accepting what’s real will only wind up broken,” he continued as the human succeeded in out pacing the final blaster. “It’s time for you to decide whether or not that’ll include you,” he said while holding out one hand. Before the human could even touch the ground again Sans was suspending them in midair.

     “I can’t stop Sans, even though you’ve told me that talking with Asgore is pointless. Even though you’ve said and done some brutal things to me yourself. I’m just not the kind of person who can go on not having tried,” as the human finished talking Sans’s right eye became a void while his left rapidly switched between glowing white and crimson.

     “Then let the breaking commence!” He shouted before tossing the human into the ceiling and then the left wall. Flowey healed the human but Sans continued to rapidly toss them against the four faces of the judgement hall. Flowey continued to heal the human again and again but his cast speed was getting slower and his vision blurry. He was trying his best but the human was taking damage too fast for Flowey to steadily mitigate Sans’s rage. For eight seconds Sans continued to toss the human like a ragdoll and Flowey healed them again…and again…..and again……….and again. As the last bit of Flowey’s power flowed from him into the human his eyes slowly began to close.

     “A single voice… will never… make it alone. It’s impossible… which is why… I wish I could’ve been-” Flowey ended up going dormant before finishing his sentence. Between the fading of Flowey’s voice and Sans’s intense punishment the human failed to perceive what he said anyway. More than likely it was because they were ready to pass out their self. Sans was started to run dry as well now. He kept the pain going but his subsequent tosses were getting slower and softer. After about five more seconds Sans slowly threw the human with hardly enough force to deal any damage. Suddenly Sans’s eye stopped flickering and he dropped the human on the ground.

     Sans started to laugh as he watched them lie motionless on the ground. _Such tough little pests you two turned out to be._   _No matter, it’s pretty clear now that you two can’t beat me so there’s only one move left for you to make,_ he thought to himself.  He then closed his eyes and started to nap on his feet as he awaited the next reset. However, to his surprise he heard breathing and quickly opened his eyes to see that it was the human back on two feet with their head hung low.

     “You can’t be serious!” Sans shouted. The human looked up at Sans, their nose was bloody and they were bruised all over like it was nobody’s business. They held their left arm with their right and dragged their right leg across the ground but none of that stopped them from approaching Sans with what little strength remained.

     “Surely you realize it’s over right? Every orthodox attack pattern that could be memorized you handled perfectly, every attack that was beyond human capability he saved you from. Both of you really did the best you could but you aren’t going to win!” He told them. The human coughed up blood before reaching out to Sans who raised his right hand and prepared for any possible attack. Once again he was caught off guard as they stumbled forward and latched on to him. Sans proceeded to close his eye sockets and let out a sigh.

     “Really now, the infamous miracle hug huh, that’s your special attack? Such a handful you are, it’s amazing that with nothing left you can still be this determined,” Sans said while hugging the human back. The moment came to an abrupt halt as a single spiked bone had pierced through the human’s chest.

     “Get dunked on chump!” Sans said before laughing even harder. He then looked down to see the human’s face, yet what he saw was far from the normal result of his mischievous deeds.

     “What, how could you possibly be smiling right now?!” Sans shouted while lightly shaking them. They couldn’t help but giggle in response. “What’s so funny?!” He said as the human then placed their good hand on Sans’s shoulder.

     “You missed. Weird as it is, this wound you just gave me is not fatal. That was an awful trick; it was a good attempt to demotivate me as well, almost. It was unnecessary since I’m sure you knew I was as good as done anyway,” they explained while bringing their gaze to the window sill. Flowey sat their motionless as all he could do was slowly recharge his magical energies while dormant.

     “Seeing him like this, you’d never guess he wasn’t a regular sunflower. I never would’ve gotten this far without him. So many times I’ve frozen up just to be saved by his quick thinking,” they said before turning back to Sans. “I haven’t given up on you Sans. You won’t admit it but there’s good in there somewhere,” they continued before falling backwards. Sans angrily stood there as he tried and failed to find the logic behind the human’s actions.

     “Listen Sans, I believe the time you spent with us was real because I’m sure there was a time that you believed everyone would only live once. That includes your brother and everyone else that you said didn’t matter to you. Knowing that, if everyone irritated you as much as you said they did, then something had to have convinced you not to end them all yourself or I would’ve never met them,” upon finishing the sentence they started coughing up more blood. “Looks like… we’re out of time, rest assured… we’ll be back,” they said while closing their eyes. As all slowly fell silent the last thing they heard before crossing over was Sans yelling.

     “How can you be so”- Sans shouted but at that point they were too far gone to hear him.

     It wouldn’t be called Snowdin if it wasn’t snowed in all the time. However, that wasn’t a bother at all to a magic skeleton. Sans was laid back on the couch and channel surfing like no tomorrow. As the sound of the microwave went off Sans walked towards the kitchen passing the A/C unit along the way.

     “I don’t see you making friends anytime soon so why bother,” was always Sans’s response when his brother would inquire about the device. As Sans pulled a corndog out of the microwave he noted that it was 6:15 on the clock.

 _Patrol time is almost over, it’s only a matter of time before I’m sure if he bit the dust or not,_ Sans thought to himself. Sans vaulted over the back of the couch with the corndog in his left hand and pulled a bottle of mustard out of a pocket in his hoodie. After topping of the corndog he continued channel surfing. To his surprise he heard the front door unlocking and the sound of his brother yelling.

     “Sans, I’ve returned,” said Papyrus as he entered the house.

     “I hear, so you’re getting the cell ready right?” Sans asked.

     “Well…no,” Papyrus responded.

     “You’re not, why?” Sans asked.

     As Sans stood up and looked in Papyrus’s direction he noticed something slowly move from behind his brother’s back. It was the human and while it was clear that they were more than nervous they still managed to put on a smile for Sans. Flowey uneasily waited in the boot with his eyes darting in every direction except for Sans’s. Sans got up from the couch and walked over to them. He then proceeded to talk while munching on the corndog.

     “What’s up kid, fancy meeting you here,” Sans said.

     “Hey Sans, you two have a nice place,” the human responded.

     “Thanks, you look nice yourself. I don’t see any chains or injuries anywhere,” Sans responded.

     Upon finishing his sentence Sans looked at his brother who crossed his arms and scowled. Sans then looked at the human who managed to make their smile just a little bit bigger for him. Sans then looked at Flowey who completely disappeared into the dirt filled boot. Sans walked back towards the couch, closed his eye sockets, and sat down.

     “So why are they here?” Sans asked while simultaneously biting his corndog stick in half.

     “Why are we here?” Flowey whispered to the human while sprouting from the dirt.

     “I brought them here,” Papyrus said with his thumb to his chest.

     “I see, but they don’t look like they’re being held prisoner,” Sans inquired.

     “Umm, could someone turn up the heat please?” The human asked.

     “Why even bother,” Sans responded. “We don’t need that thing and it’s not like Papyrus can make any friends,” he continued.

     Sans’s statement caused Papyrus and the human to quickly look at each other then back at Sans. Upon understanding what just happened Sans dropped his corndog stick and looked at the human then Papyrus.

     “You can’t be serious!” Sans yelled. “Of all the people you could’ve been cool with you chose them? If you weren’t up to catching the human you could of at least beat them first then thought about it later,” he continued.

     “Of course I was planning to beat up and capture the human. Given the circumstances it just didn’t seem like an appropriate time,” Papyrus said.

     “How does any of this make you think that staying here is ok?” Flowey complained to the human once more.

     “Enough, this is by far the stupidest idea you’ve ever had. Put them in chains and lock them in the cell right now!” Sans ordered.

     “Since when did you think you were the boss of me?!” Papyrus yelled.

     “Since when did you become a major screw up?!” Sans yelled back.

     “Even at my worst I’m still more than the big joke that you turned out to be!” Papyrus yelled again.

     “Is that so? You’ve spent an entire decade saying you’d catch a human and now you’re babysitting one. You’d be the biggest joke I ever told!” Sans yelled once more.

     “NYAH!!!” Papyrus yelled while storming out the front door. The human looked on in concern as Papyrus made his exit. Flowey waited until he was completely gone before letting out a mild chuckle.

     “Sorry, I just don’t ever see myself getting used to that,” Flowey said.

     “Come on Flowey, I know our time with them has been “eventful” to say the least but please try to play nice. You too, Sans, don’t you think all that was unnecessary?” The human turned around to see that Sans was nowhere to be found. Afterwards they looked at Flowey to ask if he saw where Sans went.

     “Don’t ask me,” he said. The human then let out a sigh and went after Papyrus. After about three minutes of following his snow tracks they were able to see Papyrus standing at the edge of Snowdin.

     “There he is,” the human said while picking up the pace. “Wait, is that?” As the human got closer they were able to make out the silhouette of a short, stocky, and familiar figure.

     “Oh, so that’s where he went,” Flowey said. As they got closer they knew without a doubt that Papyrus and Sans were face to face on the edge of Snowdin town.

     “No more games,” Papyrus said while pointing at Sans. He then proceeded to conjure an unnaturally long bone that he wielded in the fashion of a bo staff.

     “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Sans said while generating a bunch of Brakken Needles. Papyrus charged at Sans who responded by laughing and firing needles. With astounding reflexes he was able to quickly bat the needles out of the air one after another. The human sped up even more as they witnessed the fight unfold.

     “I have to stop them, but how?” Flowey shook his head no as the human continued their advance.

     “This is out of your hands, if you interrupt them now you’ll certainly get caught in the crossfire,” he explained. Sans sent a huge wall of horizontal bone pillars at Papyrus who manage to run right through them with a single dash strike. Papyrus then swung at Sans followed by a backwards thrust where he predicted Sans to teleport. However, the strike was a little off to the left.

     “Huh, that was actually close. Give it a few more decades and you might be able to hit me one day,” Sans said with a shrug.

     “Keep talking Sans, we both know one mistake means a lot, especially for you,” Papyrus said while continuing his assault.

     “What does he even mean?” The human wondered.

     “I was right, Sans has never taken a hit before because his magical power compromises his form. In short if someone landed a solid hit on him, provided they could in the first place, he’d die for sure,” Flowey chimed in.

     “What! We need to stop them or else one of them might die,” the human said with clear panic in their voice.

     “I don’t see why, to have survived this long his awareness must be through the roof,” Flowey said as the human “rooted” his boot into the snow. Meanwhile Papyrus made a bunch of sharp bones similar to the needles chase after Sans. Sans baited a few of them into driving deep into the snow. He then proceeded to swat away two more of them with his hands before shooting down a few more with his own needles. The last one he had caught with his hand and crushed it.

     “Is that all you got?” Sans said while dusting off his hands.

     “I’m just getting started brother,” Papyrus responded while channeling magical power into a very small bone.

     “Stop,” the human called out. They then rolled up a snowball and tossed it at Papyrus. The attack had already reached maximum charge so before the human threw the snowball the bone had already propelled itself towards Sans at an unnatural speed. Papyrus turned around and took a small step to the side to evade the human’s snowball. Sans evaded his brother’s attack by teleporting in front of Papyrus at the last possible moment, however the front actually became the back since his brother had turned. Upon reappearing Sans had chuckled with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

     “I bet you weren’t expecting me to use the old front-back maneuv“- Sans’s boasting was interrupted as the human’s snowball landed inside his left eye socket. At that point Flowey exploded with laughter while the human let out a chuckle or two their self. Sans then made his left eye glow red causing the snow and subsequent water to evaporate.

     “You’re messing with the wrong one pal,” Sans said with ominous tension. The human had covered their own mouth while Flowey sank into boot once more. Papyrus placed his hand on top of Sans’s head at which the air of intensity had faded.

     “Enough of this Sans, we’re going home right now, turning up the heat, and providing a tolerable enough stay for the human until they leave tomorrow afternoon,” he said. The human watched on silently as Sans and Papyrus participated in an if looks could kill staring contest.

     “Fine,” Sans said before teleporting away.

     “Come on human, it’s time for us to go,” Papyrus said as his staff faded out of existence. As the human followed behind Flowey had reemerged from the dirt.

     “You two certainly put on quite the performance. I was not looking forward to getting mixed up in that,” Flowey said.

     “True enough, had you two had not been risking the chance of killing one another it might’ve been cool,” said the human. Papyrus remained silent as the walk continued. ”Hey Papyrus, what are the names of your abilities?” The human asked.

     “You’d know that things like that don’t matter had you ever fought in a real duel to the death,” Papyrus responded.

     “Come on, have some imagination. Think of that one attack you used on us that forced us not to move, what would you call it?” The human asked.

     “Are you talking about the blue one?” Flowey asked.

     “Yeah, that’s the one,” the human responded.

     “Calm down, there’s nothing special, it’s just a blue attack,” Papyrus said with his thoughts elsewhere.

     “Blue Attack? That’s a pretty lame name. If it were me I’d call it Nonaggression Bone. That’s pretty cool don’t you think?” Flowey asked.

     “Yeah, and those things that were chasing Sans can be called Dead Man’s Daggers,” the human responded. “How’s that sound Papyrus?” Papyrus didn’t seem intrigued at all by the duo’s playfulness. The walk continued on in awkward silence for a decent amount of time until the human spoke up once more.

     “Um, Papyrus?” the human asked.

     “What is it human?” Papyrus responded.

     “I remember when we first met you were really aiming to kill me,” they said with a bit of discomfort.

     “That’s right, what about it,” Papyrus responded rather indifferently.

     “Well I wanted to thank you for- Just give it a rest.” Papyrus interrupted. At that point the walk came to a sudden stop. Papyrus then squatted down and pointed his right index finger at the human as he started talking.

     “There’s no point in thanking me. The issue of your existence down here still holds top priority within the King’s agenda. I haven’t done anything aside from making it someone else’s problem,” afterwards Papyrus fully stood up and made everyone continue walking. “The underground is bigger than any of us by far. You’ve already made it clear that tomorrow you’ll continue your journey to the King’s castle. Just know that I have no intention of tagging along,” Upon getting back to the house Sans was asleep on the couch and for the first time since they bought it the A/C was on and heating the house.

     “It took you guys longer to get here than I thought,” Sans said as his brother walked right past him. “What, nothing? Why the cold shoulder bro?” Sans chuckled at his own pun. Papyrus went up the stairs and slammed the door on his way out. “He’s definitely pissed about something, that pun usually annoys him for a small bit,” Sans said while scratching his head.

     “Don’t worry about it Sans, he’s been giving us the cold shoulder all night!” Flowey laughed at his own pun and Sans joined in with him. Suddenly Sans teleported right in front of the human causing Flowey’s laugh to turn into a scream while the human stumbled back into the wall behind them.

     “I don’t know what you did, but good work,” he said. The human had no response but to continue staring in fear and confusion. “Relax. Rules are rules. As agreed I won’t kill you or influence my brother’s decision in the soul matter for an entire day,” Sans said.

     “An entire day from now means we would’ve left for the castle by then,” the human said.

     “Time out, are you coming after us as soon as time runs out?” Flowey questioned.

     “I’m honestly not dedicated enough for all that,” Sans said while shaking his head no. “You’ll become someone else’s problem once you leave Snowdin Town. However I do like the look in your eyes,” he said while moving over to the couch. “All the monsters that see Asgore’s enforcers at work stare on from the dark. Their eyes are usually full of hatred with powerlessness hiding beneath. I see you as having focus and defiance. Hell, you might actually turn out to be quite fun,” he continued. The human did nothing but raise an eyebrow. “Hopefully you don’t pique my interests again in the near future, because you’re really unlucky if you do,” he finished before turning the tv back on. “It’s late, you know what that means,” Sans said.

     “You’re in for a “bed” time right,” The human joked, mainly to ease their own tension.

     “You catch on fast,” Sans followed. Sans then teleported away and returned with a pillow and blanket, which he placed on the couch. “Here’s the remote, usually nothing good is on anyway. See you in the morning,” he said before disappearing for good. The human moved over to the couch and placed Flowey’s boot on the ground. They then layed down on the couch and pulled the blanket over their body.

     “You have guts, not sure how you could stick around given the amount of times Sans threatened you. I wasn’t expecting Papyrus to become hostile when we tried to be cool with him either, and the whole bit about becoming someone else’s problem felt unnecessary as well,” Flowey said.

     “I’m pretty sure that it’s because he cares Flowey,” they responded.

     “What makes you think that?” Flowey asked.

     “Mainly because Sans might’ve killed us if it weren’t for him. I’ll admit, he does scare me, but when I think about it, we managed to reach out to Toriel as well as Papyrus. I think at some point we’ll be able to reach out to Sans. If we’re lucky enough our words might affect the entire underground at some point,” the human said while grabbing the remote.

     “You have very high hopes, I should’ve figured as much when you decided to placate the Froggit I told you to kill,” Flowey said. The human gave a short laugh in response.

     “I prefer to be called a big dreamer,” they said as they started channel surfing.

     At the sound of a splash the human sat up startled and looked around frantically.

     “Nap time’s over kid,” Sans said while emptying the last drop of water from a battle all over them. _Nap? That makes sense. There’s no such thing as temperature in Hollow World anyway,_  the human thought.

     “How am I still alive?” The human asked?

     “Sans saved you before you completely crossed over,” Flowey answered.

     “Flowey? You’re back! How?” The human asked.

     “Sans took me to a place where it was easier to recharge earth based soul energy. I was able to get back up to half of my power before I was forced out of the cycle,” Flowey answered again.

     “Cool, I still don’t get how Sans saved me though,” the human said.

     “I healed you using monster food. Of course an unconscious person can’t eat so I separated the healing components using magic and inserted them directly into your blood stream,” Sans said while crossing his arms and putting his back to the wall.

     “Really? Wow! I honestly wasn’t expecting that from you. Thank goodness because I honestly had no clue how we’d switch up the plan to try and outlast you. As determined as I was you’ve proven to be one tough customer,” the human said. Sans did nothing but burst out in laughter.

     “I thought I had finally crushed you when you stood up from the ragdoll game to get hit with the sneak attack. However, even though you gave me the most you two could possibly offer and still lost, I watched your life slowly fade away and the look in your eyes hasn’t dimmed a bit. Can’t be helped I guess. Even under the influence of rewinds I don’t feel dedicated enough for all this. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing that we’ve done the same song and dance for a hundred times either. Since there’s no way I can break you permanently you’re free to do what you do,” the human’s face lit up upon hearing Sans chill out on them. As they got up to hug him he used one hand to keep them at bay.

     “Come on kid, will you tone it down a bit? It’s not that big of a deal,” he said.

     “Come on Sans, this is awesome, I’ve been waiting for ages to see if we’d truly be friends,” The human said with one hand raised in Sans’s direction.

     “Man your optimism is so high, only hard headed people would take so kindly to the things I do, pun intended,” Sans said.

     “I’m sure they prefer big dreamer,” Flowey said with some laughter in between.

     “Fair enough,” Sans said while high fiving the human. “Ok back to business, you two aren’t out of the woods yet,” at this point the human started scratching their head.

     “The only thing we have to do now is reason with Asgore right?” The human asked.

     “It’s not that simple, Sans also took me to the lower level of Asgore’s castle because it was where he first became familiar with the occurrence of rewinds,” Flowey said.

     “It was the only place that gave me the whole dejavu feeling even though I’d never been before. After leaving various locations and times to investigate upon remembering each “first” visit. I finally caught on to the fact that each occurrence was now tied to you,” Sans followed.

     “That wasn’t all, with me there it became apparent to Sans that not every course of action he took per rewind was accounted for,” Flowey said.

     “Are you saying that there were times that Sans went to the lower level and didn’t remember being there before?” The human asked.

     “Precisely,” Sans answered.

     “Weird, I wonder what could be causing that,” the human said.

     “My bet is that it’s the six human souls,” Flowey responded. “You can’t use your soul power on Sans, or almost every other monster for that matter, because the combination of their specific natures and magic signatures give their soul power a stronger presence than yours. That combined with your low level of violence would make sense as to why your abilities were suppressed even though we know for sure that the power capacity for a human soul far exceeds any monsters. To make up for the loss of their bodies, the human souls are constantly cycling through a near infinite amount of magic signatures at alarming speed. Knowing the strength of just one human soul, I fear that to be subjected to this reaction would cause you to completely lose all of your power,” Flowey explained with concern in his voice.

     “I don’t get it, I’m already without power,” the human responded. Sans burst out laughing then looked at Flowey.

     “I told you it wasn’t gonna click,” Sans said.

     “What are you talking about? Am I missing something Flowey?” The human asked.

     “If you fight Asgore you might die for good this time!” Flowey yelled. The human had no response except for baffled silence.

     “What’s the deal kid? You’re not thinking about calling it quits are you?” Sans said. The human lowered their head and took a deep breath.

     “No, while I’d hate to leave you all for good we’ve come too far to just stop,” they answered.

     “Good, now aside from hoping that you don’t go dying on us we still have to worry about protecting Flowey and handling Asgore,” Sans said. “I know it’s not your thing but Asgore is not all that big on talking so you’ll have to play rough or else you won’t get a word in edgewise. Can you do that?” Sans asked.

     “I don’t know if I can,” the human answered.

     “You’ll be fine, you played rough with Mettaton, shouldn’t be too different,” Sans responded but it seemed like he wasn't even able to convince himself. The human was looking at him with utmost disapproval. “Moving on, Asgore obtained the ability of Karmic Scale Detonation from me. At the cost of tremendous amounts of soul energy he can measure the level of violence of surrounding opponents and decimate them with an explosive force. He already knows about you so I doubt he’ll use it. But in case he does I gave Flowey the ability to create a karmic shell to protect himself and one other person. The barrier actually becomes stronger the lower the users level of violence,” Sans explained.

     “Wait a minute Flowey had to kill things in the past. Are you sure he’s gonna be alright?” The human asked.

     “It’s all good, it doesn’t matter that he did what he had to do, if your compassion isn’t dulled by the act of killing then there won’t be a change.” Sans reassured them. “Remember, if you want this to go down with as little mistakes as possible then you’ll have to be able to hold your own against Asgore. Now go, if you think you can change this place for the better than prove it,” immediately the human took a deep breath, picked up Flowey, and started moving towards the exit, but before they left they had turned around and waved goodbye to Sans.

     “See you on the other side,” the human shouted.

     “You can count on it,” Sans responded. As the human finally exited the Judgement Hall Sans posted up on the wall again and fell asleep on his feet. _This is about to turn into one huge mess,_  he thought to himself. As Sans rested by the Judgement Hall window he felt a somewhat familiar presence coming his way. _Reminds me of… forget about it. Not interested at the moment,_  suddenly he felt a hand pushing on his shoulder.

     “At times like this I’ve considered hanging a do not disturb sign from my neck,” Sans said as he opened his eyes and turned towards the trespasser. As the figure came into full view Sans began to chuckle. “Well look who it is.”


End file.
